Marriage Guidance Online has been developed by
Dr. J. Oscar Jeske, a marriage relations
educator and marriage and family therapist. It is an outgrowth of the well-accepted marriage preparation program, Preparing for Relational Effectiveness in Marriage (PREM), which he offered online for the first time in the year 2000.  Its purpose was  to provide Christian couples, who were about to get married, with an easily available opportunity to learn how to structure their marriage in a way that would minimize, if not eliminate altogether, the possibility of divorce and make their lives together more satisfying.  Its major feature was the presentation of information based on sound research and biblical principles.  But along with it, participants were given the opportunity to learn new things about themselves and each other through the use of assessment instruments and guided interaction between them, thus strengthening their relationship and making their approaching marriage much more stable.

     Using internet communication technology couples could do that even while they were separated half a world apart from each other.  The program has been offered online continuously since its inception and now, under the new title of Preparing for a Lasting Marriage, is part of the triad of  programs offered by Marriage Guidance Online.
     After a 33 year career as a university professor, Dr. Jeske retired from both university teaching and his part-time counseling practice and lives in Texas.  Upon his retirement, he occupied the Ralph and Marie Barby chair of Family Psychology and was Director of Graduate Studies in Marriage and Family Therapy at Oklahoma Baptist  University. In 1992 the University honored him with the Distinguished Teaching Award.  In addition to his full-time duties at the University he maintained a part-time family therapy practice as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. 
     Dr. Jeske has been active for many years in the profession of marriage and family therapy on the state level having served several terms as an executive board member of the Oklahoma Association of Marriage and Family Therapy and one term as its president.  The Association  honored him with a Lifetime Contribution Award in 1997.  A few years before his retirement, he also served a four-year term on the Marriage and Family Therapy Licensing Board of the Oklahoma State Department of Health.